Post Game Thread - vs Phoenix Suns, Away

[bobheckler]

Stars, studs and duds: Smart finds a way to make impact


March 27, 2016, 1:30 am












Brad Stevens doesn’t pay much attention to box scores.

And that’s a good thing for Marcus Smart who continues to struggle shooting the ball.

But as has been the case for most of this season, the second-year guard did manage to make his presence felt which proved invaluable to Boston as the Celtics held off a late run by Phoenix to escape the desert with a 102-99 win.

Boston has now won four in a row and with the victory, they remain fourth in the Eastern Conference.

And the play of Smart was part of Boston’s success on Saturday, although it wasn’t due to his shooting.

Smart missed five of his seven shots but still finished with a near double-double of nine points and eight rebounds.

“When my shots not falling,” Smart told reporters, “still find a way to impact the game.”

More important was the hustle plays Smart made, like wrestling a loose ball away from three Phoenix players that led to a 3-pointer by Jonas Jerebko, or being in the right place at the right time around the rim when Jared Sullinger lost control of the ball which landed in Smart’s hands for a lay-up at a time when the Celtics were reeling offensively.

“Those are the things that make Marcus special,” Stevens told reporters. “He impacts winning.”

Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds following Saturday’s game.


STARS

Isaiah Thomas

Thomas delivered his 12th straight game of 20-plus points (only Kevin Durant has a longer current streak in the NBA), scoring 28 points with 15 coming in the third quarter which is when the Celtics’ offense sputtered mightily.

Evan Turner

Turner delivered his 4th double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but the play that most will remember was his last-second blocked shot of a Devin Booker jumper that helped secure Boston’s fourth straight win.

Devin Booker

He spent a good chunk of the first quarter on the bench with foul trouble, but it didn’t take him long to make up for lost time. He led Phoenix with 21 points and nearly rallied the Suns to victory only to come up short.


STUDS

Mirza Teletovic

Boston did a decent job of taking away his 3-point looks, but Teletovic still managed to score 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting along with nine rebounds.

Kelly Olynyk

The 7-footer came off the bench to give Boston a much-needed lift, scoring 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting.

Avery Bradley

He was huge in getting the Celtics offense going as well as putting Devin Booker on the bench due to early foul trouble. Bradley finished with 15 points.


DUDS

Boston third quarter play

Far and away this was when the Celtics were at their worst as the Suns scored 34, third-quarter points to cut Boston’s dominant lead down to single digits. The Celtics turned the ball over six times but it led to 14 Phoenix points.

Brandon Knight

Down by one point late in the fourth quarter and Knight launched an ill-advised 3-pointer that sailed out of bounds. Boston gets credit for making big plays defensively down the stretch, but Knight’s poor decision to take that shot rather than drive or step in closer was the kind of mental gaffe that gives you a sense as to why the Suns are such a bad team.



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EVEN WITH SHOTS NOT FALLING, MARCUS SMART IS STILL DETERMINED TO ‘FIND A WAY TO IMPACT THE GAME’
03.27.16 at 2:10 am ET


By Mike Petraglia  
 


This might be just the second year in the NBA for 22-year-old Marcus Smart but he’s been around long enough now to know that you don’t have to score to help your team win important games.

Saturday night was such a night for the player who right know can’t buy a shot.

Smart finished just 2-of-7 from the field and missed all five 3-point shots in Boston’s 102-99 win over the Suns in Phoenix. But he made several key hustle plays down the stretch, including one offensive rebound with four minutes left where he grabbed the ball, spun it around his back to keep it away from the defender and managed to get the Celtics another 24 seconds on the shot clock.

Smart played 32 minutes off the bench, helping to take some of load off Avery Bradley (weak from an illness and a cross-country flight Saturday). He had eight rebounds, four assists, one steal and even a blocked shot.

“My main focus is try to, even though my shot’s not falling still, find a way to impact the game,” Smart told reporters after the game. “We have a lot of guys on this team that can do a lot of things. If my shot’s not falling, I try to pick us up some other way, especially when we have guys that are knocking down shots.”

There’s been almost constant talk about Smart’s inability to score, and for good reason. In the last three games, all Celtics wins, he’s made just 4-of-26 from the field and has missed all 11 attempts from beyond the arc. But his offensive rebound and his defensive intensity are just two things he did that helped the Celtics win their fourth straight.

“Those are the things that makes Marcus special,” coach Brad Stevens said. “Sometimes those go in a box score, sometimes they don’t but he does them every game. It’s why I don’t get too caught up in the box score stuff with him. He impacts winning and tonight was a good example of that.”

Smart set a good example for Evan Turner, who blocked a potential game-tying layup from Devin Booker with 10 seconds left.

“I thought we made defensive plays and obviously, made enough free throws to win the game,” Stevens added. “But offensively, I thought we didn’t play with much poise in the third quarter and that’s why they got back in the game. That, and defensively, we were not as good.”

Stevens wasn’t focused on the Celtics blowing a 20-point third-quarter lead.

“I knew this was going to be tough, and especially with the idea that they would have to play basically all guards in the way that they shot it, it was a problem,” Stevens said. “We did a great job defending the 3-point line. What we gave up were some of those [Mirza] Teletovic posts as a result.

“We took away the three, which was going to be really important. PJ Tucker and Teletovic really hurt us in the post. But at the end of the game, we locked down on those possessions pretty darn well. It puts you in a really tough spot because the 3-pointer is so darn dangerous and they shoot it so well that it’s hard to match up. We weren’t really exposing them on the other end with post-ups either. So, it’s kind of one of those things where it’s a hard game to play because of the small and skill [players].”

“I think we’ve played better at that end but we still can get better hopefully over the next 48 hours before we play a team that scored 134 on us.”

That team would be Doc Rivers’ Los Angeles Clippers, the team the Celtics beat 139-134 in overtime on Feb. 10 at TD Garden. The rematch is set for Monday night at the Staples Center.


_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________



STUDS AND DUDS: ISAIAH THOMAS SAVES CELTICS FROM THEMSELVES, ESCAPE WITH WIN OVER SUNS

03.27.16 at 12:39 am ET


By Mike Petraglia


Three quarters was enough Saturday night. Barely.

Isaiah Thomas, who was traded from Phoenix at the trading deadline in Feb. 2015, scored 28 points while Evan Turner added 17 points and 11 rebounds as the Celtics barely held off the woeful Phoenix Suns, 102-99, Saturday night at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The Suns (20-53) were led by rookie Devin Booker with 21 points.

Avery Bradley finished with 15 points, including 13 in the first half. That was particularly impressive considering he just arrived in Phoenix on Saturday after staying back in Boston with a stomach illness that kept him out of action on Thursday and Friday.

“He felt pretty good,” coach Brad Stevens said. “It’s hard to come back and play like that. I think the hardest part of today is not necessarily how he felt on Thursday but the fact that he sat on a six-hour flight and then got off the plane and played. That’s not easy. He did a good job.”

The win was crucial for the Celtics in the standings. Not only was it their fourth straight after a four-game skid, it improved them to 43-30 and kept them just a half-game behind third-place Atlanta in the East. Boston pulled a half-game ahead of idle Miami for fourth place. Charlotte (42-31) is just a game back of Boston, and in sixth place.

Saturday night appeared to be a walk in the park early, as the Celtics built a 58-41 halftime lead. Evan Turner had 15 of his 17 points in the first half and Bradley had 13 points in the first half as the Celtics led 55-34 at one point.

The Celtics continued to look in complete control to open the second half, leading 64-44. But then they fell asleep. The Suns went on a 29-10 run to cut the Celtics’ lead down to one. The Celtics were outscored 34-23 in the third quarter and gave Phoenix life.

Jonas Jerebko connected on a pair of key fourth-quarter threes that held Phoenix at bay midway through the fourth. The Celtics led 93-84 with just over five minutes left when the Suns made one final push, getting to within five at 96-91. But Bradley answered with a pull-up jumper from 14 feet with 2:45 left. Then with 1:50 left, Devin Booker got hot, feeding Mirza Teletovic for a dunk. With 1:16 left, Booker hit a step back jumper, pulling the Suns within one, 97-96. He had a chance to give the Suns the lead but his shot at the top of the circle with 58 seconds left was short and Turner hauled in the rebound.

With another chance at the lead, Then Brandon Knight took a deep three that hit nothing but air with 32 seconds left. Marcus Smart hit a pair of free throws with 21.1 seconds left to put Boston up, 100-97 before Booker answered with a put-back with 15.5 seconds left.

Thomas missed his first free throw in 10 attempts with 13.9 left before hitting the second, making it 101-99. Booker drove to the basket but Turner blocked him from behind and Smart hit two free throws with 2.3 seconds left to ice the game.

The Celtics are off Easter Sunday before returning to action Monday night at Staples Center against the Clippers.

For a complete box score, click here. To go beyond the box, read on.


STUD OF THE NIGHT: Isaiah Thomas

Celtics continue to rely (maybe too much) on Thomas. He scored 27 points and continues to carry the Celtics one-dimensional offense. He has now scored at least 20 points in 12 straight games. Runner up: Evan Turner. Turner blocked Devin Booker from behind in the final 15 seconds and scored 15 points in the first half.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Jared Sullinger

Perhaps he’s hurt. He scored just four points on 2-of-8 shooting, with just five rebounds while committing five turnovers. He doesn’t look like himself. Runner-up: Amir Johnson scored just two points in 24 minutes.



VIDEO OF THE NIGHT:


WHINE OF THE NIGHT:

Up 20 points in the second half against a 51-loss team is no time to fall asleep. But whether it was human nature or, as Isaiah Thomas admitted after the game, the Celtics just dropped their guard, the Suns somehow made it a game. The Celtics are going to have to find ways of getting other players involved in their offense in the second half and not turn it into the Isaiah Thomas show every time they need a basket. Turner had 15 at the half and finished with 17. Bradley had 13 at the break and finished with 15. That’s four second-half points between the two starters.

STAT OF THE NIGHT:

The biggest reason the Suns got back in the game? The Celtics finished with an abysmal 19 turnovers that led to 26 Phoenix points. In defense of the Celtics, they’ve been doing a remarkably great job with ball-handling since the All-Star break. Saturday night was an aberration. They also returned to (bad) form from long distance, hitting just 8-of-29 shots. That was offset by Phoenix making just 7-of-31.



bob


.

[dboss]

How timely that in the midst of our discussion about Marcus Smart, you have Exhibit A the Suns game presented into evidence.

dboss

[bobheckler]

I only watched the first half, so I can't really comment on the game (especially that awful 3rd quarter).  A 21 point lead isn't safe against this team?  Really?

Was on the phone with Worcester for the last 5 minutes or so.  He had the game on NBA TV while I was following the play-by-play on ESPN.  Time delays are funny things.  Anyway, we had fun.

All the columnists seem to be standing up for Smart.  He was 2-7 and 0-5 from 3.  If you can help the team by doing other things other than shooting, then stop shooting.  Please.  If he took zero 3pt fgas he'd have the same number of points and the team's fg% would go from a poor 41.7% to a respectable 44.3% and our 3pt fg% would go from a poor 27.6% to a respectable 33.3%.  When Jerebko was in a 3pt shooting slump earlier this year he took only 1 or 2 3pt fgas/game.  Now that his shot is back he took 5 3pt fgas last night.  This seems like such a simple, intuitively obvious concept to me.  If you can't throw the ball in the ocean from >12' away, then stop throwing the ball from 22' away until you can.

Kelly with a hot shooting game.  When he's on, he's on.  Now let's see what happens.  Is the rust finally off or is he back on the roller coaster?  The ball looked very fluid coming out of his hands in the 1st half.  He was 2-4 from 3 but his other 5fgm were all in the paint.  There ya go, Kelly, play like a 7'er.  He's sneaky, he really is.  He's an earth-bound, slo-mo player and yet, because of his great ball-handling skills for a man his size and BBIQ he's still able to wheel-and-deal in the paint and get his man on his back or hip where he wants them.  One thing I liked, in that first half that I saw, was that he was trying to post players up in the paint everytime.  We couldn't get the ball to him because the Suns were cheating like crazy, falling off their man so they could swoop in if the ball was dumped into him (so it wasn't) but I liked that Kelly was setting up camp in the paint and calling for it.  More of that.  More aggressiveness.  More "I'm bigger than SFs and PFs, so gimme the ball and let me take them".  He struggles defending against centers but, as Danny said when Kelly was drafted, he wasn't drafted to be an NBA center, he was drafted to be an NBA PF.  Expecting Kelly to be a good defender against centers is as wrong as expecting Sully, another NBA PF, to be a good defender against them.  Or Dirk.  He's 7' but you would NEVER think of him as a center and expect him to defend one on a regular basis.

This was the perfect grudge game for a player who plays with a chip on his shoulder.  We'd win the championship if IT got cut/traded from every team in the league because he'd play to kill whenever he went up against them from that day forward.

Bradley was in the hospital, taking fluids from "stomach issues" and dehydration.  Wasn't supposed to join the team, but felt they needed him and got on a later flight and showed up 4 hours before game time.  Jae isn't the only tough guy on the team, that was pretty gritty of Avery.  Played 32 minutes too.

No Tyson Chandler, no Jon Leuer, no Eric Bledsoe.  This shouldn't have been even remotely close.  Not good.  We've seen this behavior from Sully before.  He gets up for the big games but plays down to his competition in other games.  If there's a silver lining in that it's that, in the playoffs, they are ALL big games.

Alex Len was the #5 pick in the 2013 draft and everybody was drooling over him.  He's the 3rd string center on a terrible team now despite having a body that's built for it and coming out of a good program at Maryland.  So much for the annual NBA crap shoot, especially the lower classmen.


bob


.

[dboss]

The Celts let a big lead slip away but this happens all the time throughout the league.

The Celtics still managed to gut out a tough win on the first game of their road trip.

Yes KO is back on track

The Celtics accomplished what they set out to do and that is get another W.

dboss

[cowens/oldschool]

I only watched the first half, so I can't really comment on the game (especially that awful 3rd quarter).  A 21 point lead isn't safe against this team?  Really?

Was on the phone with Worcester for the last 5 minutes or so.  He had the game on NBA TV while I was following the play-by-play on ESPN.  Time delays are funny things.  Anyway, we had fun.

All the columnists seem to be standing up for Smart.  He was 2-7 and 0-5 from 3.  If you can help the team by doing other things other than shooting, then stop shooting.  Please.  If he took zero 3pt fgas he'd have the same number of points and the team's fg% would go from a poor 41.7% to a respectable 44.3% and our 3pt fg% would go from a poor 27.6% to a respectable 33.3%.  When Jerebko was in a 3pt shooting slump earlier this year he took only 1 or 2 3pt fgas/game.  Now that his shot is back he took 5 3pt fgas last night.  This seems like such a simple, intuitively obvious concept to me.  If you can't throw the ball in the ocean from >12' away, then stop throwing the ball from 22' away until you can.

Kelly with a hot shooting game.  When he's on, he's on.  Now let's see what happens.  Is the rust finally off or is he back on the roller coaster?  The ball looked very fluid coming out of his hands in the 1st half.  He was 2-4 from 3 but his other 5fgm were all in the paint.  There ya go, Kelly, play like a 7'er.  He's sneaky, he really is.  He's an earth-bound, slo-mo player and yet, because of his great ball-handling skills for a man his size and BBIQ he's still able to wheel-and-deal in the paint and get his man on his back or hip where he wants them.  One thing I liked, in that first half that I saw, was that he was trying to post players up in the paint everytime.  We couldn't get the ball to him because the Suns were cheating like crazy, falling off their man so they could swoop in if the ball was dumped into him (so it wasn't) but I liked that Kelly was setting up camp in the paint and calling for it.  More of that.  More aggressiveness.  More "I'm bigger than SFs and PFs, so gimme the ball and let me take them".  He struggles defending against centers but, as Danny said when Kelly was drafted, he wasn't drafted to be an NBA center, he was drafted to be an NBA PF.  Expecting Kelly to be a good defender against centers is as wrong as expecting Sully, another NBA PF, to be a good defender against them.  Or Dirk.  He's 7' but you would NEVER think of him as a center and expect him to defend one on a regular basis.

This was the perfect grudge game for a player who plays with a chip on his shoulder.  We'd win the championship if IT got cut/traded from every team in the league because he'd play to kill whenever he went up against them from that day forward.

Bradley was in the hospital, taking fluids from "stomach issues" and dehydration.  Wasn't supposed to join the team, but felt they needed him and got on a later flight and showed up 4 hours before game time.  Jae isn't the only tough guy on the team, that was pretty gritty of Avery.  Played 32 minutes too.

No Tyson Chandler, no Jon Leuer, no Eric Bledsoe.  This shouldn't have been even remotely close.  Not good.  We've seen this behavior from Sully before.  He gets up for the big games but plays down to his competition in other games.  If there's a silver lining in that it's that, in the playoffs, they are ALL big games.

Alex Len was the #5 pick in the 2013 draft and everybody was drooling over him.  He's the 3rd string center on a terrible team now despite having a body that's built for it and coming out of a good program at Maryland.  So much for the annual NBA crap shoot, especially the lower classmen.


bob


.

On KO his offense was On and no question it helped, I don't think hes adequate defensively at any position, so I don't limit him to centers, I know hes not a center, I wish we could find another position he could defend, whatever that is? Alex Len is not garbage, like Zeller is defensively, he can score in the paint and defend somewhat and rebound, at least hes not a feeble weak defender, the Suns problems are many, but Len is not as bad a your making him out to be.

On Smart, if hes another slightly better version of TA thats fine with me, as I've seen Smart's defense and intangibles help us all year, to have another bigger tenacious defender coming in for AB or playing with him, is a good thing, he and AB are a big part of this teams identity which is a defensive team that gets into you and after you.

[bobheckler]

I only watched the first half, so I can't really comment on the game (especially that awful 3rd quarter).  A 21 point lead isn't safe against this team?  Really?

Was on the phone with Worcester for the last 5 minutes or so.  He had the game on NBA TV while I was following the play-by-play on ESPN.  Time delays are funny things.  Anyway, we had fun.

All the columnists seem to be standing up for Smart.  He was 2-7 and 0-5 from 3.  If you can help the team by doing other things other than shooting, then stop shooting.  Please.  If he took zero 3pt fgas he'd have the same number of points and the team's fg% would go from a poor 41.7% to a respectable 44.3% and our 3pt fg% would go from a poor 27.6% to a respectable 33.3%.  When Jerebko was in a 3pt shooting slump earlier this year he took only 1 or 2 3pt fgas/game.  Now that his shot is back he took 5 3pt fgas last night.  This seems like such a simple, intuitively obvious concept to me.  If you can't throw the ball in the ocean from >12' away, then stop throwing the ball from 22' away until you can.

Kelly with a hot shooting game.  When he's on, he's on.  Now let's see what happens.  Is the rust finally off or is he back on the roller coaster?  The ball looked very fluid coming out of his hands in the 1st half.  He was 2-4 from 3 but his other 5fgm were all in the paint.  There ya go, Kelly, play like a 7'er.  He's sneaky, he really is.  He's an earth-bound, slo-mo player and yet, because of his great ball-handling skills for a man his size and BBIQ he's still able to wheel-and-deal in the paint and get his man on his back or hip where he wants them.  One thing I liked, in that first half that I saw, was that he was trying to post players up in the paint everytime.  We couldn't get the ball to him because the Suns were cheating like crazy, falling off their man so they could swoop in if the ball was dumped into him (so it wasn't) but I liked that Kelly was setting up camp in the paint and calling for it.  More of that.  More aggressiveness.  More "I'm bigger than SFs and PFs, so gimme the ball and let me take them".  He struggles defending against centers but, as Danny said when Kelly was drafted, he wasn't drafted to be an NBA center, he was drafted to be an NBA PF.  Expecting Kelly to be a good defender against centers is as wrong as expecting Sully, another NBA PF, to be a good defender against them.  Or Dirk.  He's 7' but you would NEVER think of him as a center and expect him to defend one on a regular basis.

This was the perfect grudge game for a player who plays with a chip on his shoulder.  We'd win the championship if IT got cut/traded from every team in the league because he'd play to kill whenever he went up against them from that day forward.

Bradley was in the hospital, taking fluids from "stomach issues" and dehydration.  Wasn't supposed to join the team, but felt they needed him and got on a later flight and showed up 4 hours before game time.  Jae isn't the only tough guy on the team, that was pretty gritty of Avery.  Played 32 minutes too.

No Tyson Chandler, no Jon Leuer, no Eric Bledsoe.  This shouldn't have been even remotely close.  Not good.  We've seen this behavior from Sully before.  He gets up for the big games but plays down to his competition in other games.  If there's a silver lining in that it's that, in the playoffs, they are ALL big games.

Alex Len was the #5 pick in the 2013 draft and everybody was drooling over him.  He's the 3rd string center on a terrible team now despite having a body that's built for it and coming out of a good program at Maryland.  So much for the annual NBA crap shoot, especially the lower classmen.


bob


.

On KO his offense was On and no question it helped, I don't think hes adequate defensively at any position, so I don't limit him to centers, I know hes not a center, I wish we could find another position he could defend, whatever that is? Alex Len is not garbage, like Zeller is defensively, he can score in the paint and defend somewhat and rebound, at least hes not a feeble weak defender, the Suns problems are many, but Len is not as bad a your making him out to be.

On Smart, if hes another slightly better version of TA thats fine with me, as I've seen Smart's defense and intangibles help us all year, to have another bigger tenacious defender coming in for AB or playing with him, is a good thing, he and AB are a big part of this teams identity which is a defensive team that gets into you and after you.

Cow,

As far as Kelly's defense he isn't aggressive like the players you and I like but he helps create misses.  Not blocks,  just awkward shots and he has become a satisfactory help defender.

Len is the #3 center on a crappy team behind Jon Leuer.  Jon Leuer behind Chandler isn't the 2nd coming of Gortat behind Howard.    He would probably be behind Zeller on this team because of his limited offensive skills, lack of foot speed in the half or full court and complete inability to play high post or pick-n-pop..  In other words, he doesn't fit in a space-and-pace system and the league is heading towards space-and-pace.

bob


.

[bobheckler]

Btw, that game saving block by Turner on Booker from 3' away from the rim is also rim protection. A block from 3' is a block from 3'.

bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

bob I don't know what your watching, while KO's defense has improved, he is still terrible at post defense and rebounding in traffic, his help defense is nothing to write home to Mom about either. For a big he's a disgrace most times on the defensive end, I agree he can't cover centers and shouldn't be asked to, but he isn't much better with PF's either.

[cowens/oldschool]

Btw, that game saving block by Turner on Booker from 3' away from the rim is also rim protection.  A block from 3' is a block from 3'.

bob


.

I really like Evan Turner, seems like he can do everything, except for shooting 3's, his defense has really picked up. He overpowers smaller players close to the basket and can get there because he has a great handle. I hope we keep him going forward, having a guy off the bench that can play 1-3 at a very high level is a great advantage.

[steve3344]

Btw, that game saving block by Turner on Booker from 3' away from the rim is also rim protection.  A block from 3' is a block from 3'.

bob


.

I really like Evan Turner, seems like he can do everything, except for shooting 3's, his defense has really picked up. He overpowers smaller players close to the basket and can get there because he has a great handle. I hope we keep him going forward, having a guy off the bench that can play 1-3 at a very high level is a great advantage.

Cow,

Small sample, but in his last ten games Turner is 50% on threes (5 for 10).  But here's an interesting grouping of a few career three point shooting percentages of some players:

33.0% - Kobe Bryant
32.7% - Michael Jordan
31.3% - Allen Iverson
30.3% - Derrick Rose
30.3% - Russell Westbrook
30.3% - Magic Johnson
30.2% - Evan Turner
29.8% - Julius Erving
29.0% - Isiah Thomas (not our Isaiah)
28.6% - Dwayne Wade
27.5% - Jared Sullinger

Interesting that Turner's 30.2% falls pretty much right in the middle of that group.  Not that it means anything.  Except it means that Turner's horrid start at shooting threes this year on his first 66 attempts (16.7%) was an aberration from his career, where he's been a little below average (which is around 33-34% for current players) but not historically bad.  

At least Turner has bragging rights over Sullinger on threes...

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